OHIO, USA — More kindergarteners received annual vaccines for a variety of diseases for the 2022-23 school year than they did for the two previous school years, the Ohio Department of Health said in a press conference Thursday.
These include shots like polio, hepatitis B, tetanus, varicella and MMR (measles, mumps and rubella).
ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said there was a drop in vaccinations during and after the pandemic, many people missed routine visits to their physicians and kids were also learning from home.
Vanderhoff said nearly 10%, or 12,000 kindergartners, either are missing vaccines or had no vaccine on file last year.
Also last year though, there was an increase in kindergartners who had vaccines compared to the previous school year.
Douglas Harley, president of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians, compared the chances of winning a Powerball lottery to the chances of dying from measles. He said the chances of someone dying from measles are about 1 in 1,000. The chances of someone winning the Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million.
"Your risk of dying from measles is way higher than your potential risk of [winning] Powerball but everybody always thinks 'I'm going to be one to win the Powerball' and they go out and buy a ticket," Harley said. "So, I think we have to play the odds and the odds are definitely in our favor for vaccines."
Officials with ODH provided WTOL 11 with this vaccine data chart:
The Vaccines for Children program is federally funded and helps kids get the vaccines they need for free.
Vanderhoff suggested speaking with your doctor about vaccines if you have questions.